The term refers to any number of acts, including killing, done with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. This intent is the key element that distinguishes genocide from other crimes against humanity and hate crimes.

While the decision not to call the thing by its name may well be political, the rightness of that decision rests only on whether the facts satisfy the legal criteria. In the case of the Armenian genocide, there is little doubt that they do. That’s why the administration’s avoidance of the term is shameful.

GABOR RONANew York

The writer is a visiting professor at Cardozo Law School and director of the Law and Armed Conflict Project at the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights.